Cedras

Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras will leave Haiti - possibly to Panama, possibly on Wednesday - as a wealthy man. He is widely thought to have racked up millions of dollars since the 1991 coup.''We believe he has no financial worries,'' said U.S. Embassy spokesman Stan Shrager. ''I think everyone believes he squirreled away a considerable amount of money.''Estimates run to upwards of $10 million, gained mostly from smuggling petroleum, offshore banking and, some U.S. officials think, illegal drug transactions.

The three-sided plexiglass shield that protected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as he spoke on the steps of the presidential palace during his triumphant return to Haiti was a sober reminder of just how unstable the situation remains in that troubled nation. It took not only plexiglass but a phalanx of security guards that included the U.S. military to reinstall Aristide to power.It also took a huge bribe to get the military dictator Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and his family to leave the country.

The United States handed Haiti's military dictators some going-away gifts to induce them to make way for the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the Clinton administration said Thursday.Raoul Cedras and his former top general, Philippe Biamby, will have access to their frozen assets in U.S. banks, and 23 of their family members and close associates have been granted a safe haven in the United States.And in an ironic twist, Cedras - who was shoved out of power by the arrival of 20,000 GIs - will now become landlord to Uncle Sam. White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said the United States had agreed to rent three of his homes.

The United States handed Haiti's military dictators some going-away gifts to induce them to make way for the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the Clinton administration said Thursday.Raoul Cedras and his former top general, Philippe Biamby, will have access to their frozen assets in U.S. banks, and 23 of their family members and close associates have been granted a safe haven in the United States.And in an ironic twist, Cedras - who was shoved out of power by the arrival of 20,000 GIs - will now become landlord to Uncle Sam. White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said the United States had agreed to rent three of his homes.

Haitian military commander Raoul Cedras accepted a U.N. plan for his resignation and the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti, but Aristide balked at the arrangements as negotiators worked into the night Friday to salvage an agreement.The plan, proposed by U.N. envoy Dante Caputo, provides for the removal of Cedras before Aristide's return on Oct. 30.But diplomatic sources said Aristide wants the immediate resignation of the general, who ousted him in a coup almost two years ago.Cedras planned to leave the site of the negotiations, Governors Island in New York harbor off Manhattan, and return to Haiti today.

After appearing to be on the verge of collapse, U.N.-led talks on Haiti's political crisis were suddenly revived Tuesday with the announcement by the country's army commander that he was eager to discuss conditions for preparing for the return of the ousted president, the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide.The commander, Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, made the statement at a news conference on Governors Island in New York harbor, where the talks are being held. It lent hope to diplomats and advisers to Aristide that the negotiations, which were thought to be dead as late as Tuesday morning, could produce a breakthrough in the country's 21-month-old political stalemate.

The leader of the 1991 military coup that toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is refusing to resign and says he will not accept a transfer overseas, a newspaper reported Friday. ''I will die here. I am a Haitian,'' Le Nouvelliste quoted army Lt. Col. Joseph Michel Francois as declaring in a rare interview. Francois, 36, is widely considered more powerful than army commander Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras. He directs the 1,000-member police force and thousands of armed civilians blamed by the United Nations for a rise in terror.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his arch foe, Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, met separately Sunday with a U.N. envoy trying to resolve Haiti's 20-month-old political and economic crisis.The talks, involving the exiled president and the army chief who ousted him, opened under tight security on Governors Island, a Coast Guard base in New York Harbor. Cutters patrolled the waters around the island barring other craft from a 200-yard zone. The barrier was designed especially to protect Cedras, object of hatred among many Haitian immigrants, thousands of whom demonstrated outside the United Nations, chanting denunciations of the military leader as a ''drug dealer'' and ''killer.

Haiti's military chief has agreed to resign in exchange for amnesty and safety for himself, his family and other members of his command, The Miami Herald reported today. Gen. Raoul Cedras, leader of the 7,000-member military that ousted elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide 18 months ago, told U.N. mediators this week of his intentions to resign, the Herald reported, quoting unidentified diplomats. Officials in the Clinton administration and the deposed government of Aristide warned that Cedras' resignation, by itself, would not bring Aristide back to power, the Herald story said.

They are Haiti's most powerful men, the focus of an international pressure campaign - yet little about them is known.They seemed to rise from nowhere - yet all three are the sons of former government officials.They are vilified as thugs - yet they are intelligent, well-educated and multilingual.''U.S. officials think they are dealing with unsophisticated brutes,'' said William O'Neill, a former member of the United Nations civilian mission to Haiti. ''They may be brutes, but they know what's going on. And they're not stupid . . .''They are Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, 44, army commander-in-chief; Brig.

Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras will leave Haiti - possibly to Panama, possibly on Wednesday - as a wealthy man. He is widely thought to have racked up millions of dollars since the 1991 coup.''We believe he has no financial worries,'' said U.S. Embassy spokesman Stan Shrager. ''I think everyone believes he squirreled away a considerable amount of money.''Estimates run to upwards of $10 million, gained mostly from smuggling petroleum, offshore banking and, some U.S. officials think, illegal drug transactions.

A pro-army gunman shot and wounded a supporter of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Wednesday as legislators met under U.S. military protection to debate an amnesty for Haiti's military junta.The gunman fired on a crowd of Aristide loyalists as they marched toward an office of a paramilitary group chanting anti-military slogans, witnesses said.One marcher, a funeral home attendant identified as St. Clair Joseph, was critically wounded in the chest.The volley of gunfire, which could be heard outside the Haitian Legislative Assembly blocks away, startled American soldiers manning positions behind concertina wire protecting the parliament building.

EXCUSE ME. I'm confused. On Sept. 15, President Clinton went on television and told the American people and the people of Haiti that Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras' ''time to leave has come and it is now.'' He said America will no longer tolerate Cedras and his thug army. America wanted the democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to return. America was prepared to send in big ships, guns and troops to ensure this happens.The Sentinel now states our big ships, guns and troops are there and are now strategically positioned around Haiti observing and watching while these same ''thugs'' beat and kill supporters of the very person Clinton says he wants to restore as leader.

Answer. Military ruler Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and his two top commanders are to resign by Oct. 15. Until then, they are to assist the U.S.-led occupation. The return of deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is implied. The high command will be protected by an amnesty law to be approved by the Haitian congress.What are the main drawbacks?A. Cedras, army chief-of-staff Brig. Gen. Philippe Biamby and Port-au-Prince police chief Lt. Col. Joseph Francois Michel are not obliged to step down immediately, nor are they required to leave the country.

Exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said the eleventh-hour agreement that averted a U.S.-led military invasion of his country was ''deeply disappointing and disturbing,'' according to a spokesman.Burton Wides, a Washington attorney for Aristide and his government said Monday that he was authorized to say the agreement was disappointing because it is ''a fundamental retreat from the commitment the White House made'' to the deposed president a few days ago.He was referring to President Clinton's demand that the leaders of the Haitian military junta leave Haiti ''now.

Panama's offer of asylum to Haitian military strongman Raoul Cedras still stands even though he may not need it, Panama's foreign ministry said Monday. ''It is very premature to say (if Cedras will seek asylum), because if (the Haitian legislature) grants him amnesty, he can apparently go wherever he wants,'' Foreign Minister Gabriel Lewis told reporters.Cedras' wife did not want to see husband forced outWASHINGTONHaitian Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras' wife posed a major obstacle to reaching agreement on averting invasion, former president Jimmy Carter said Monday.

The early years1791 - During French revolution, a slave rebellion is led by Toussaint L'Ouverture.1804 - Haiti proclaimed independent country. Becomes world's first Black republic.1915 - President Woodrow Wilson sends Marines to Haiti to restore order, torn by years of unrest. U.S. forces Haiti to pay large international debts.1934 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders Marines withdrawn from Haiti, but U.S. continues to control country's finances until 1941.1946 - Army officers take control of the government.

Exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide insists he be returned to power in six weeks, but military leaders are holding out for at least six months, sources close to the U.N.-mediated talks said Thursday. Aristide presented a three-point initiative late Wednesday to Dante Caputo, the chief U.N. negotiator in the talks, to end the nine-month-old political crisis in Haiti, sources close to Aristide said. The proposal included the demand for the resignation of military ruler Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and the rest of the military high command of the Caribbean nation.

By Nancy Feigenbaum and Craig Crawford of The Sentinel Staff, September 19, 1994

While some Florida Haitians were jubilant at the U.S. agreement with Haiti, others reacted with disgust at the accord.In Miami, a crowd of about 75 Haitians blocked a downtown street in front of the Haitian Refugee Center, angered that Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras would not be forced from the country immediately.''Jimmy Carter hypocrite. Cedras must go,'' they chanted. ''Bill Clinton hypocrite. Cedras must go.''In Central Florida, most Haitians followed the news in their homes. But a church revival on South Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando became an impromptu celebration when the preacher interrupted to say Cedras had agreed to leave.

The early years1791 - During French revolution, a slave rebellion is led by Toussaint L'Ouverture.1804 - Haiti proclaimed independent country. Becomes world's first Black republic.1915 - President Woodrow Wilson sends Marines to Haiti to restore order, torn by years of unrest. U.S. forces Haiti to pay large international debts.1934 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders Marines withdrawn from Haiti, but U.S. continues to control country's finances until 1941.1946 - Army officers take control of the government.